w e b s i t e
"Brainstatik: you can't get it out of your head"
New Jersey-based Brainstatik is best known for their completely-improvised live concerts, where they perform long-form jams combining ambient, world, progressive rock, and space music, liberally shifting and mixing genres within each piece. Every song is a spontaneous exploration of diverse musical themes, with nothing rehearsed or planned beforehand, so Brainstatik always sounds completely different each time they play.
Brainstatik has been together for 12 years and performs smaller shows in galleries as a duo or trio, or in larger concerts with the current full lineup of six members. Everyone in Brainstatik is a certified electronic gear junkie, each choosing from a huge sonic palette from which to make sounds. Armed with this complex musical toybox, guitars can sound like drums , keyboards can make guitar sounds, and drums can play keyboards, which often can confound audience members (and sound engineers) who can't quite tell who's playing what part. Brainstatik's current lineup of multi-instrumentalists includes founding members Robert Burger and Ken Palmer, along with Mike Hunter, Glenn Robitaille, Jim Silvestri and George Mahlberg. Click here to see who's played with the band in the past, and here for a little deeper Q and A with the band.
The music heard at their live shows is always organic, with each piece constantly evolving and morphing into something new. Brainstatik can sound ethereal and quiet, complex and orchestral, or experimental and edgy. The resulting performance often sounds rehearsed and composed, but in reality the band has no explanation for where the music takes them at any live show... it all just happens at that moment, almost beyond their control. The risk of a creative "train wreck" is always there, but the members of Brainstatik thrive on taking their music right to the edge every time they perform. They'd be quickly bored doing it any other way.
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UPCOMING SHOWS:
Nothing scheduled for the near future....stay tuned!
Join our Brainstatik Announcements group to get notified of upcoming gigs:
Brainstatik's looking for more gigs in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania... even in NYC and beyond! If you know of (or do the booking for) any coffeehouses, cafés, art galleries, festivals, or other hip venues/events that might be receptive to our band's unique music, pass the info along to us at brainstatik@aol.com.
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BS NEWSWIRE
February 2008
Lots of live gigs in the last 2 months! Hopefully we'll build on this momentum as we push into the Spring! We've been recording and videotaping ever gig, so stay tuned for lots of new CD releases, a live DVD release, as well as a stronger Internet presence, with music (finally!) on iTunes and video clips on YouTube... and a complete redo of this less-than-wonderful website! ;-) More to come!
Older news...
Below is where the boys have been lately:
Spring and Summer 2007
(Watch this space for details/archives)
The band has finally entered the wonderful world of MySpace: here. There you will find four exclusive unreleased tracks available for your listening pleasure. Feel free to become a MySpace friend of ours; all the hip young cats and kittens are doing it! Or just say HI...
Friday, April 21st, 2006
Gate to Moonbase Alpha
With Brainstatik's THIRD trip to the Rotunda in Philadelphia, we joined our friends Ace Paradise, Stares to Nowhere, and Ombient for an eclectic night of spacemusic. This was the first-- and perhaps the ONLY-- time that the full BS gang of SIX has ever performed live together in one place. Pix to come...
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Sunday, May 7th, 2006, 2-4pm
"Sound Paintings" at The New Hope Arts Building
The band returned to this great space (for the THIRD time!) to perform "SoundPaintings" --two full hours of all-new improvisational spacemusic-- upstairs in The New Hope Arts Building, New Hope, PA. All 'cept George were on hand to play. Pix to come...
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Sunday, June 4th, 2006, 3:15-4pm
Live at the Electro-Music 2006 Festival
The band played a single set in the late afternoon as part of this amazing THREE-day gathering of electronic music fans, fanatics, and fellow musical misfits at the Cheltenham Arts Center in Cheltenham, PA. There was tons of live music, demos, jams, and lectures. Ken, Rob and George performed as a trio for the first time. Pix now online at event.electro-music.com.
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Sunday, January 29, 2006, 2-5pm
The New Hope Arts Building
On Sunday, January 29th, Rob, Mike, Ken, Jim, and newest band member George Mahlberg (on Chapman Stick) performed "Soundtracks for Artworks" --improvisational spacemusic (of course!)-- once again at The New Hope Arts Building.
Corner of Bridge and Stockton Streets, New Hope, PA. Pix to come!
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Friday, October 28th, 2005
War of the Worlds on WPRB-FM 103.3
Brainstatik once again performed on Dr. Cosmo's annual homage to the innovative genius of production, Orson Welles. For 2005, the script was placed in the Waring Blender of Audio Confabulation and the results were, well, out of this world. For pix, please go here.
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Saturday, October 1st, 2005
Philadelphia Electronic Music & Art Festival
Brainstatik and Ombient returned to the Philadelphia Electronic Music & Art Festival on Saturday, October 1st. Mike + Mike started off with an Ombient performance, with Brainstatik following with a short but blisteringly intense set of improvisational music. More info on the 2005 PEMA Fest can be found here.
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Sunday, June 12, 2005
The New Hope Arts Sculpture Show
On Sunday, June 12th, Mike, Ken and Rob performed "Music for Sculptures" --improvisational spacemusic (of course!)-- at The New Hope Arts Sculpture Show in New Hope, PA. Pix to come!
The band (minus Jim) joined the always delusional Doctor Cosmo on May 20th, 2005 at WPRM-FM 103.3 in Princeton for a live night of improvisational chaos. Pix can be seen here.
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October 9th, 2004
The Cosmic Coffeehouse
As a last-minute fill-in band for the Cosmic Coffeehouse, Glenn, Jim and Ken performed as "Statik Flux." This was a one-time-only, completely unrehearsed hour of improvised music that produced something that was pretty different than expected; it wasn't just "three-fifths of Brainstatik." The show started with a performance by guitarist Peter Biedermann, followed by the "SF" trio, who were encouraged by the audience to do an encore! Pix of the trio's show can be found here.
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Brainstatik performed to rave revues at the Philadelphia Electronic Music & Art Festival on Sunday, May 2nd, 2004. Mike started off with an Ombient solo performance, with Brainstatik following. Custom video projections created by Mike (with artistic contributions by the rest of the band) were projected over Ombient and Brainstatik during their performances. Photos from the show are here. A link to the PEMA Fest (with more pix trickling in) can be found here.
The "core duo" of Rob and Ken performed two sets at the Ed Adams Gallery in New Hope, PA, on Saturday, March 6th. This ambient incarnation of Brainstatik was well received by a large and receptive crowd of Saturday afternoon shoppers, with people even clapping along with one particularly rhythmic piece! Photos form this live show can be viewed here.
Four-fifths of the band (Mike was absent) performed a live radio concert on Friday the 13th of February on WPRB-FM. This "bad luck"-themed show resulted in many intrigued phone calls to the station, wondering what was going on. Sound files and photos of both sets are now online, and can be downloaded here.
On a sad note, the large mirror that was used to compose this photo has recently shattered! Bad luck? An omen? Nahhhh!
On the heels of GIZMO, another new CD -- Inter-Planetary Transmission Portal -- has been released. This latest CD captures the ambient-flavored feel of the recent "core duo" Cosmic Coffeehouse show, and includes one extended 50-minute-long space jam! (Available to order online soon.)
Ken again hosted the sixth Crosswicks Cosmic Coffeehouse on September 11th. Prog rockers The Red Masque and guitarist Matt Klotz were the featured artists for the evening.
Congrats to Rob at landing a record contract for his latest solo effort as The Gak Omek. Recent positive reviews of his CD must have helped too!
Ken continues to tweak the final mix of his own solo CD, entitled The Sonorus Project. It should be ready for release sometime in the near future.
Mike performed a live solo radio concert (as "Ombient") on WPRB-FM 103.3 in Princeton on January 23rd. Check out the details and pix here. Ken (on the way back from visiting Mike at the WPRB studios) filmed a short ambient video clip from his car while listening to Mike playing on the radio. The music provided a sureal soundtrack for a trip down a stark snow-covered highway in the dead of night. Experience this 2Mb taste of video verité here.
As always, digital pix of the band's most recent jam sessions can be found here.
Announcing the arrival of GIZMO, the latest Brainstatik CD. Listen to MP3 samples and order the CD here.
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b s c o n c e r t s
2004: March 6st: The "core duo" live in New Hope at the Ed Adams Gallery
2003: September 13th: At the inaugural Cosmic Coffeehouse in Crosswicks, NJ (photos)
2003: February 14th: Live appearance at WPRB-FM in Princeton, NJ (photos and MP3s)
2002: August 30th: Live appearance at WPRB-FM in Princeton, NJ (photos and MP3s)
2002: August 3rd: Free live show in Crosswicks, NJ (photos!)
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b s m u s i c
NEW! mp3 music samples--finally!
Full mp3s from August30, 2002 WPRB show
Full mp3s from February 14, 2003 WPRB show
Full mp3s from April 11, 2003 WPRB show
Full mp3s from February 13, 2004 WPRB show
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b s g a l l e r y
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b s c o n t a c t s
Web site copyright 2002, 2003, 2004
by Rob Burger and Ken Palmer
